He said his colleague and board chairman Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin informed the directors of his transfer during a 1MDB board meeting earlier that year.
“I was surprised by Tan Sri’s call during the meeting where he told the board I would be moved to Pemandu,” he said when asked by ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram about the circumstances leading to his exit from the sovereign fund.
Pemandu was set up in 2009 to develop the national transformation programme and coordinate its implementation. It was previously headed by Idris Jala.
Shahrol said he received his appointment letter as a director in February 2013, and that his appointment took effect on March 15 that year.
He said businessman Low Taek Jho had asked him at the end of 2012 whether he was interested in joining Pemandu.
“I told him that I serve at the pleasure of the prime minister, and that if the PM wanted me to go, I would go.
“I also told him I felt there were many things left undone in 1MDB, such as the real estate projects in TRX, Bandar Malaysia, and our plan to improve the independent power plants environment here,” he said.
He also told the court that Tarek Obaid, the founder and CEO of PetroSaudi International, had sent him a letter dated May 22, 2015, following news of his transfer.
The letter said 1MDB had paid Low’s company Good Star Ltd a sum of US$700 million.
“The news reports said I transferred the US$700,000 to Good Star. The letter was my response to Jho Low, asking him to confirm that Good Star was PetroSaudi’s affiliate company.”
When asked by Sri Ram who had attended the 1MDB board of directors meeting at Hilton Park Lane, London, on May 16, 2011, Shahrol named Najib, Lodin, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, Tarek, PetroSaudi director Patrick Mahoney as well as Low.
He said the meeting was arranged by Jasmine Loo, who was 1MDB’s general counsel at the time.
“I remember at the start of the meeting, Tarek gave Datuk Seri (Najib) a watch,” he added. “It looked expensive.”
He said during the meeting, they had talked about PetroSaudi’s investments in Malaysia, including a potential proposal for the Saudis to fund the construction of navy ships.
However, Najib did not question Tarek about the US$1.83 billion 1MDB had paid to PetroSaudi, he added.
The hearing continues before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Najib is standing trial for 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power charges over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited in his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.